Electronic Voting Machine

It is very much painful and disheartening that a person who worked hard for such a long period to assess the reliability of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) has been arrested. In fact he should have been awarded suitably for his noble work and for opening the eyes of Election commissioner who was never ready to agree to believe that EVM could be tempered with. During last election many eyes brows were raised after the astonishing result of many constituencies. Election commissioner has perhaps made it a prestige issue and certified the EVM as fully secure and leak proof.

In fact the District Election Officer should be arrested and suitably punished who has alleged that EVM was stolen by Sri Hari Prasad. It is very much shameful that he could not provide enough security to EVM machine even after having sufficient armed forces at their disposal. And why the district authority was silent for such a long period on case of theft of EVM is again a mystery.

Election Commissioner should have voluntarily offered set of EVMs to any research minded person to establish the reliability of EVM beyond doubt. He should have provided all amenities and all supports to Mr. Hari Prasad to carry out his research activity on EVM and to allay doubts on the functioning of EVM expressed by various political parties last year after the declaration of election result of Parliament.

It is not astonishing that experts all over the world are surprised over the decision of Indian government and Indian system and the attitude of election commissioner. Obviously act of arresting Sri Hari Prasad is condemnable and gives scope for aggravating controversy and rise of potential political debate.